The Ice Age

The award-winning fashion designer Richard Chai has partnered with Daniel Arsham and Alex Mustonen of the avant-design firm Snarkitecture to create an elaborately carved “ice” cavern for a new pop-up shop opening Thursday evening. Conceived by Boffo, an art and culture nonprofit group, and the architect/writer Spilios Gianakopoulos to promote visibility for designers and artists, the project — titled Building Fashion — consists of a series of five rotating installations in a space underneath the High Line (504 West 24th Street). The five participating fashion designers (Simon Spurr, Heather Huey, House of Waris, Richard Chai and Siki Im), none of whom has a freestanding store, were each given the opportunity to create a three-dimensional representation of his or her brand. Chai said he wanted to avoid “the straightforward clothes-on-a-rack retail space” in favor of creating “an environment, a feeling, more of an emotional experience.” The “cave,” which is hand carved from high-density Styrofoam, also allows for irregular crevices and crannies to display merchandise. The store will carry Chai’s men’s and women’s collections and will be open to the public until Oct. 31 (noon to 6 p.m.), so head over there quickly before it “melts.”